Mi amiga

For the last few days, I have had the pleasure of the company of my closest friend from my study abroad group in Costa Rica. Kelsey is from California and we were instant friends! Before this past Wednesday, I had never seen her in the United States!

Wednesday night around 11:30 pm her flight landed at the Charleston International Airport, so I went to pick her up there! It was strange to see her at first because the last time we saw each other was the night before she left Costa Rica! Isn't that crazy?! I picked her up and we went back to my casa and spent a couple of hours just talking and catching up. Then we went to sleep and slept in on Thursday morning. She loves to run so I took her for a walk across the Ravenel (Cooper River) Bridge!

There are places to park below the bridge and there is a cute little park there too! We walked across the bridge around midday, and much to my surprise, it wasn't all that hot! The ocean breeze kept us cool (but didn't keep us from sweating!). There is a lovely view of Charleston from the Bridge and we had a great time!

After walking (most of the) Bridge and back, I took her to one of my favorite restaurants - Bessinger's BBQ. I love some good BBQ and some sweet tea! Kelsey had chicken and macaroni and cheese - southern staples - and enjoyed them very much! After lunch we got in touch with a couple of other guys from our study abroad program who live in the city and they invited us to the beach where they were life guarding. So we went to the beach and found them and talked for a while! They invited us to go to a concert with them that night, so we agreed to the mini-road trip. We headed back to my place to shower and get cleaned up and ready, and the boys came to pick us up around 7. We then drove up to Myrtle Beach and made good time! We went in to the concert, and it was fun to be with friends! The band isn't a group I would ever go to hear again, but I appreciated the time with my amigos!

We spent the night at one of our friend's sister's place near the beach and had a good night of rest. In the morning when we woke up they fixed a delicious breakfast of pancakes for us. We went to the ocean for a few minutes, and then came back and got ready to head back to Charleston. On the way out of town, the boys wanted some HOT DOUGHNUTS NOW, so we stopped at Krispy Kreme and they split a dozen. We enjoyed the ride back, singing random songs that came to our minds and laughing and reminiscing about Costa Rica.

When we had arrived back in Charleston and were coming across the bridge, K's car started acting up (actually it's his dad's). It wouldn't accelerate and we started to get worried, and then what looked like windshield washer fluid started coming out onto the windows. We got off the bridge and into the first gas station we could find and then a little smoke started coming from under the hood! We of limited car knowledge assumed it was probably radiator fluid and that the car was overheated. K called his dad and helped him figure out what to do. In the meantime, E called his dad who just happened to be downtown somewhere to come get us and take the rest of us home. While we were waiting, we found a wallet on the ground. I used my handy dandy BlackBerry to look up his phone number on the internet and got in touch with him eventually to explain what happened. We were afraid to give the wallet to the gas station people because we thought they might take all of the cash out of it before returning it. You never know! So he sent someone to come get it for him, and we returned it. He gave us a $20 bill to split, so we each got $5. E's dad arrived and took me and Kelsey back to my house.

We (K and I) decided to go walk around downtown so that she could see more of the city. I took her to the swings and by the pineapple fountain, and then we made our way down East Bay, to the Market, to an ice cream shop (the peach ice cream was DELICIOUS and very refreshing), and then down King Street. As we were finishing our stroll, I noticed that it was getting very cloudy and stormy looking outside. We drove around town a while longer and the sky really started looking bad! We went back to take showers and get ready for dinner, and by the time we made it back, it had started raining! This is the first time it has rained since I have been in Charleston (unless it rained while I was at home last weekend). The thunder was loud and the lightning was scary, but I love thunderstorms. I do NOT, however, love the humidity that accompanies them! But that's Charleston for you!

For supper, we went to a restaurant recommended by E at the Charleston Marina called the Marina Variety Store Restaurant. The view looking out over the harbor at sunset was GORGEOUS! The restaurant wasn't crowded and the inside was decorated with lanterns and other nautical paraphernalia. I had shrimp and grits, one of my favorite southern dishes, and Kelsey had some kind of fish platter that looked wonderful! We enjoyed the meal, and I will definitely be going back there soon!

After dinner, we went home to watch a movie. Her flight left at 6:30 this morning, so we knew we had to get up early and decided to stay in and rest that night! We watched Across the Universe, and what I saw of it was great...before I fell asleep. I will have to finish it! I woke up at 4:30 am and we got ready to go. Needless to say, there was no real traffic anywhere. It's always strange going to bed when it's dark and waking up again when it's dark. I dropped her off and said good-bye. It was tough to say good-bye again to one of my best friends, some one who knows me better than most people and was there during one of the most incredible experiences of my life, knowing that I will not see her again for a while.

I came back to my place and went back to bed. I slept again till 10:30 am and woke up and read for a little bit. Then I cleaned my room because I have just kind of thrown things around all week. I then showered and got ready to head into town to run some errands. I went to the Tanger Outlets to take something back to Old Navy. I drove through and got some greasy fast food (oops!) and then braved the crowd to go into Wal-Mart. I got everything I needed, except for thumb tacks - they didn't have big ones. I thought that was shocking! I got back in my little car and headed back.

I've been relaxing and hanging out all evening. The last few days have worn me out so the rest has been nice. I plan to rest more tomorrow after going to church in the morning.

Buenas noches!